Vegan Gumbo

This weekend I was pretty much laid up on the couch due to some back pain (sciatica, not fun!) so the boy made me gumbo on Sunday night with his mom's recipe (we also had some okra kicking around). They lived in Lousiana for a time and he has some Cajun blood in him. His mom is not Cajun but apparently she made the best roux back then. Roux takes a lot of patience due to the constant stirring and let me tell you, she has the patience of a saint so no wonder why her gumbo rocked. :)

Anyway, It was the first time I'd ever had gumbo and I loved it! He substituted Field Roast "Mexican Chipotle" flavour vegan sausages for the Andouille. We both thought it added just the right amount of heat to to the base. As you can see, I doused mine with a lot more hot sauce.

Gumbo's not the prettiest thing to photograph and I suck at plating and lack the patience, but I had to get a photograph to show his mom (she reads my blog). He did a great job on this. :)

I think next time, I'll try my hand at this. I wonder if I'll have the patience for making a dark roux. Probably not, but it will be fun to try.

Breaded & Fried Seitan (Vegan Tonkatsu)

I'm a seitan junkie so I love trying lots of different ones. The basic seitan recipe is a tester recipe for Joy Tienzo with a few of my own modifications thrown in. Texture was perfect: dense but not rubbery, tender but not spongy.

After cooking (simmering in broth), I let them cool in the fridge and then dredged the pieces in flour, soy milk and panko crumbs, then fried them and topped with tonkatsu sauce. On the side: mushroom rice pilaf and brussel sprouts.

Apricot Glazed Tempeh (variation)

Tester recipe for Joy Tienzo.

The original recipe uses seitan but Joy wanted someone to try this with tempeh.

While still delicious, I think I much prefer it with seitan since the taste and texture of the tempeh tended to overwhelm the flavours of the glaze/sauce.

Hot Basil Eggplant

Thai inspired eggplant dish — tester recipe for Joy Tienzo.

The dish was an excellent balance of sweet, savoury and spicy. I'm definitely making this again!

CSA Haul

We didn't pick up as much as the last few times but we still got quite a lot of yummy produce! Oh, and that's Abigail licking Mr. Marbles in the background. :)

• 2 bags of green beans
• 2 bags of other beans/peas (not really sure what type — sort of a cross between a snow pea and a snap pea)
• 4 asian eggplants
• 1 bunch leek
• small basket of cucumbers
• small basket of tomatoes
• 3 orange/yellow tomatoes
• 2 small heads red cabbage
• 2 bunches swiss chard
• 2 bunches tuscan kale
• 1 large zucchini
• 1 small basket of white onions

Bonus Pics: Shadow & Abigail

Pizza!

I decided to make pizza for lunch today since the boy is also here "working from home." Actually he is doing a bit of work, so...

Store-bought crust (spelt), topped with green pepper, mushrooms and two types of Cheezly (mozzarella and white cheddar).

I think I mentioned that I bought TEN packages of Cheezly on sale a little while ago. I still have 6 packages left in the fridge!

Vegan Alfredo & Broccoli

Lunch at the home office. Note the TV remote top right. :)

Vegan alfredo with broccoli. Inspired by the recipe here.

I didn't end up measuring anything threw this all together to taste: vegan margarine, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, dried parsley, some creamy Sheese, soy milk, nutritional yeast and topped with crumbled Cheezly and hot chili flakes.

Grilled "Cheese"

Vegan grilled "cheese" — two different types.

Top: Creamy Sheese Garlic & Herb
Bottom: Cheezly Mature White Cheddar

The Cheezly was much much better than the Creamy Sheese

Buffalo Tempeh

Tempeh based on the "wingz" recipe here with a few changes along with some homemade vegan ranch dressing.

Fettucine and Panko Breaded Eggplant

Fettucine tossed with olive oil, garlic, oven roasted tomatoes, spinach, basil and hot chili flakes. Eggplant breaded with panko breadcrumbs and shallow fried.

For the oven roasted tomatoes, I cubed Romas but left the yellow/orange cherry tomatoes whole. Then I tossed liberally with olive oil, salt, pepper, minced garlic and some sugar. It went into a 425F oven for about 45 mins.

I know it's summer but I've been doing a lot of oven roasting lately!

Oven Roasted Kale

Tuscan kale tossed with olive oil, dark toasted sesame seed oil, soy sauce, agave nectar and then roasted in the oven at 425F for about 10-15 minutes. Topped with sesame seeds.

I think this is my new favourite way of preparing kale. The kale gets a little crispy in parts and the rest is tender. Next time I'll let it roast a little longer to get crispier.

You can also see some grains of rice hiding under the kale.

Christmas in July

Okay, not really but I decided I wanted a big dinner tonight so I made a Tofurkey roast, mashed potatoes, carrots, green beans and homemade mushroom gravy.

It totally heated up my entire house with the oven on but it was worth it!

CSA Haul

Our CSA haul this week includes*:

- 2 little baskets of tomatoes
- 3 cucumbers
- 4 white onions
- 1 melon
- 2 heads of broccoli
- 2 bunches of tuscan kale
- 2 kohlrabi
- 2 eggplant
- 2 green peppers
- 1 small green cabbage

* Nosy cat Annabel not included.